MGH SRM V, ed. B. Krusch & W. Levison (1910) — the primitive Life (recension A) in 22 chapters, translated into modern British English; Krusch’s critical preface is condensed to its substance.

Editor’s Preface (condensed) #

When letters revived for the writing of history, the monks of no monastery gave such pains as those of the renowned house of Fontenelle to composing — belatedly indeed — the lives of their own saints who had lived in the Merovingian age; for of the monastery’s origins they had no record save the founder’s life — ancient indeed, but meagre enough. Wandregisel, surnamed Wando, holds among the abbots of the Gallican church no mean place; but the biographer he obtained, unequal to his merits, served devotion rather than history, so that although a contemporary, he hardly satisfied a curious posterity.

The holy man was born of noble parents in the territory of Verdun, and trained for public office; he entered the cursus honorum and held some exactorship — though what it was cannot be learned from the author’s words. As a young man he was in the service of King Dagobert, to whom Chlothar had ceded that part of Austrasia in 625/6. At his parents’ request he reluctantly married a most noble girl, who at his persuasion was converted; both then followed the ecclesiastical order. He made his first trial of the monastic life with a certain old man at Montfaucon (dép. Meuse), but did not stay long; for King Dagobert had him brought to the palace to answer for having shorn himself without leave, but he so won the goodwill of all that the king dared not oppose his purpose further. He soon began building a cell at his own expense; but being of a restless spirit he did not keep the same dwelling long. Moved by a dream he set out for Bobbio with three boys and one donkey, unknown to the rest; after dwelling there some time he meant, desiring a remoter place, to go to Ireland — but changing his plan turned aside in that foreign land to the monastery bearing its founder’s name, Romanus (Romainmôtier), in the pagus Ultrajuranus; since its strict way of life pleased him, he submitted there a while to the regular discipline. He carried out his father’s commands diligently and speedily, and was not wanting in duty. He received new presages of perseverance, and it was said that his nephew Godo would follow him. Confirmed by this vision he went to Audoin, consecrated bishop of Rouen in 641, and at his instance, though unwilling, was ordained both subdeacon — that is, deacon — and indeed received the priesthood at the hands of Audomarus, bishop of Thérouanne. In the same diocese of Rouen he acquired by royal gift a place belonging to the fisc, situated on the brook Fontanelle in the forest of Jumièges; there he founded the monastery which once took its name from the brook, now called from its patron Saint-Wandrille-Rançon (dép. Seine-Inférieure). He built three basilicas — of St Peter, St Paul, St Lawrence — and added a fourth chapel sacred to St Amantius, bishop of Rodez, a mile distant. He sought his food by his own hands, having renounced the things of this world; when he had gathered a great number of monks he could not be without lands, and those enrolled in the monastery gave him them. He no longer made journeys without the bishop’s leave, and had bound the bishop to himself by his zeal for holiness. He converted to the Christian faith the brutish and savage men of that region — the pagus Caletensis — so that they who had been spoilers afterwards lavished their goods upon him; by his humility he tamed the barbarous peoples newly converted, and ceased not to pray daily for his monks, that so new a plantation might be kept for Christ. So he exercised the cure of souls in those parts. His fame is said to have spread even into distant lands, so that those who had not seen him used his heavenly intercession. He governed the monks humbly and without complaint to extreme old age, and to teach them laboured at the work of his hands even when far advanced. He exacted confession of sins from his men strenuously, following Columbanus’s example — and that he was enrolled in the Irish sect may be concluded both from his journey to Bobbio and from his purpose of going to Ireland. The rule observed by the monks of Fontenelle must therefore have been Columbanus’s, or rather combined with Benedict’s — such a book as Abbot Wando (from 742) afterwards brought into the monastery’s library. Worn out by long age he was seized with a slight sickness and, having exhorted the monks to concord, with the whole company gathered breathed his last on 22 July; to his successor Lantbert King Childeric in the eleventh year of his reign, A.D. 672, gave certain possessions.

On that day he was entered in the Fontenelle recension of the Hieronymian Martyrology: “At the monastery of Fontenelle, the burial of Abbot Wandregisel.” The common text adds: “and at the same place the dedication of the basilica of St Peter the apostle, where the venerable father himself rests in the body.” Bishop Bainus of Thérouanne, abbot of Fontenelle, is said to have translated the bodies not only of Wandregisel but of Ansbert and Vulframnus from St Paul’s to St Peter’s; but that translation must have been made decades before the year the later authors assign. St Peter’s basilica, burnt by fire, Abbot Widolaic repaired with the help of King Pippin; on the Northmen’s inroad the bodies of Wandregisel and Ansbert were dug up and carried off in 858.

Since the place where the monastery was founded had belonged to the fisc, the monks must have enjoyed singular liberty, which they also obtained by Queen Balthild’s generosity. Nor did the princes of the Carolingian house neglect to favour the monastery’s fortunes. We lament the loss of the oldest charters, but have the privilege of Louis the Pious confirming it, granted in 815.

The oldest author (A) had lived with Wandregisel himself in the monastery of Fontenelle in the last years of his life, so that he could only have learned the earlier deeds through others — most of them, as he wished, from the monks or disciples of the saint who had long served him. What the saint himself told him he knew (c. 12), whom he calls “our father” (c. 17); he heard him preach and afterwards saw with his own eyes. Many things he claims to have seen himself; but studious of brevity he produced too meagre a work, and while he imparted what was needful for the course of the life, he lived largely on visions and prophecies. He wrote much about the father’s death and the brethren present (cc. 18–22), citing one brother who wished it believed he had heard in his own cell the choirs of saints singing beside the dying man, though those present heard nothing. The author lived in the second half of the seventh century and, as W. Levison has rightly observed, undertook the Life after Audoin’s death, about A.D. 700. At the book’s opening he followed Fortunatus’s Life of Albinus, borrowed much of the prologue from the dedicatory letters of Gregory the Great and Jonas, and from Isidore’s Sentences; telling the saint’s origin he took fragments from the Lives of Furseus and Germanus of Auxerre. The Agatho whom Wandregisel is said to have invoked on his deathbed was known from the Vitae Patrum. The biographer handed down few memorable things and many trifles — unwilling that curious readers should not know, for instance, that the saint wished to wash his long hands frequently in water, not so common a habit then perhaps.

The author’s slenderness of matter is matched by a style so rough and barbarous that he clearly learned his letters in Wandregisel’s own age. Krusch collects the worst corruptions of his declensions, genders, and conjugations (ae for i, i for e, c for g, t for d, feminines for masculines, “hoc erat studius”, “manere habit” for manebit, and the like).

Of the primitive Life only one manuscript survives — Paris lat. 18315, uncial, early eighth century, once of Corbie — but of all the lives and passions Krusch edited, none could be collated against so ancient an exemplar. A tenth-century corrector busied himself amending the rustic speech, erasing letters and interpolating words.

In the ninth century the Fontenelle writers produced a second Life (B) addressed to Lantbert — a fraud on every side: it professes contemporary authorship while pillaging the Gesta abbatum Fontanellensium (before their interpolation), the Lives of Ansbert, Vulframnus, Erembert, Condedus, and even the Vita Lantberti itself — forgetting the fiction by which it dedicated the work to Lantbert living. It cites sources that never existed — “the deeds of Baltfrid”, “the book written of the acts of Abbess Childomarca of Fécamp” — the latter confession serving to claim the Fécamp monastery as lately under the Fontenelle abbot’s sway. The B-author invents Wandregisel’s royal kinship (Waltchisus, father of Wandregisel and uncle of Pippin — a fiction already detected by Pertz and shown by Vacandard to have arisen in the ninth century within the monastery itself), his Roman journey, his ten years at Romainmôtier, three hundred monks, a fourth basilica, and precise synchronisms of regnal and abbatial years that betray the Carolingian hand: he must be placed in the mid-ninth century, after the Northmen’s raid of 841 and before the translation of 858. Two miracles he stole from Jonas’s Life of Columbanus (I, 20 and 27), assigning them to a forester Betto and to Balthild’s charity; the prophecy of Clovis II’s three sons he took from the Life of Eligius. His chronology — Wandregisel dying in his ninety-sixth year after nineteen years and five months of rule, on 22 July 665, the monastery founded in Clovis II’s eleventh year — cannot stand against the data of the primitive Life, which makes the saint a young man in Dagobert’s service about 625.

The estates which B reports as pious men’s gifts to the saint are likewise suspect: Erembert’s gift of Virtlaicum, for instance, was no Erembert’s to give — it belonged to the Carolingian patrimony until Archbishop Hugo granted it to the monks in 713.

The manuscripts and earlier editions of Life B are listed (S.-Omer 704; Le Havre 332; Rouen 1380; Cambrai 846; Paris 15437; Brussels 18018), and the editions of Surius, Labbe, Mabillon, the Bollandists, and Arndt are reviewed — Arndt first restored the barbarous text of A from the ancient codex. Krusch himself prints only Life A, noting B’s divergences occasionally in the apparatus.

The Life of the Holy and Most Blessed Wandregisel, Abbot #

¹ The life of certain religious men, the more excellent it is in merit, the more clearly it ought to shine in deed — especially since we are little enough fitted to search it out. For we trust in Him who said: “For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you” [Mt. 10:20] — through whom the tongues of the dumb are unloosed, and the manner of speech was once distinguished through the mouth of a brute donkey by sensible men. It is no wonder, then, if He afford understanding through His own creature, since when He wills, He declares His truth through the mouths of beasts. Roused therefore into this hope and girded with heavenly strength, I have stirred up my rusticity to weave the life of the blessed servant of God Wandregisel. I will undertake it with such faculty as I can, for the Lord is mighty to confirm my words. Much indeed has been disclosed to me of that most blessed man’s virtues — many things seen by myself, many more related by the venerable monks and his disciples who served him for long years, who tell not only what they heard but what they saw. Of this work, then, concerning the shining grace of the aforementioned father, I have set down a few things out of many — in humble speech, lest I breed weariness in the readers, in brief compass, lest a too diffuse page bring ridicule; but let the modest narrative nourish edification, though completed less elegantly, by the aid of the divine mercy granting us pardon therein. Now therefore let him who reads this kindle his soul in zeal for good works and in his fervour; let him keep what he has heard with his ear, meditating on the altar of his heart with all eagerness — keeping, let him accomplish; accomplishing, let him fulfil in the work of God with the utmost longing.

² I beseech, feeble as I am, that all who read this life of the blessed man beware lest, like Cain, they strike it with the sword of envy, tooth and tongue, but take care to keep it in heart and soul — for as the prophet sings: “The children of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword” [Ps. 56:5]. Very often, for the edification and correction of mortals, the examples of the good profit much, by which a man is built up daily to follow after manifold virtues. For if the precepts by which we are warned were wanting for attaining the pleasantness of paradise, the examples of the saints would suffice us for a law. This the eternal King has fulfilled from the ages, who commends the enduring fame of His servants, that posterity may profit by their examples and kindle with greatest devotion to the love of the heavenly country. Considering these things concerning this venerable father Wandregisel, I have inserted into my relation what pertains to the praise of God — not wearied by any favour of human declamation. Let the evil find in it what to fear, the good what to rejoice in, the proud whereby to be humbled; let the lustful guard the example of chastity with modest mind, the garrulous learn to be still, the grasping to wither, the avaricious to forsake the world with all its hindrance, the drunken to be sober; let robbers learn gentleness, the slothful grow fervent, the imprudent seize true prudence with holy simplicity. Let us all consider with wonder how much grace of religion we have in this athlete of God — how great the strength of his virtue and of his bodily affliction and the fountain of his tears. But since the brevity of this work does not permit the manner of his renunciation of the world to be comprised in full, let us leave this thread of narration and rise the more happily to tell somewhat of the merits of his life, to God’s glory.

³ There was then a man of venerable life, illumined by God, Wandregisel surnamed Wando, sprung from the territory of Verdun, noble by birth but nobler by religion. His parents, committing him for a season to the highest, from the very rudiments of his youth instructed him in worldly business, according to the manner of secular men — among the mundanici. Receiving earthly honour, he exercised the exactura committed to him. Yet his mind was not alienated from God’s commandments, for he fulfilled the bidding of the holy Gospel: he rendered to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s [Mt. 22:21].

⁴ Not many days after, he was asked by his parents to be betrothed to some girl; by their bidding he was betrothed to a girl of exalted parentage and well-born — she was indeed most noble in the world’s eyes. Then the man began to say secretly in his thought what he ought to do. He wished to forsake the world’s delights and subject himself to God’s service, and he feared that if he made it known to her she would not consent. He resolved to take her and afterwards speak with her of the habit of conversion. Taking her, then, and wishing after receiving her to win his wife — as it is written: “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” [Mt. 19:19] — with prudent exhortation, learned as he was, he persuaded her that the grace of conversion has a great reward, and that they who were here joined in one flesh should be joined without end in the glory of the saints. She, kindled by the Holy Spirit, broke forth into such words: “O my lord, what ailed you that you did not reveal this to me before? Know most certainly that I too wish to give myself without any doubting to God’s service, to forsake the vanity of this world and reign in Christ’s glory. This I beg of you, my lord: that you strive to fulfil in deed what you put forth with your mouth, and give yourself to freedom and me your handmaid to the yoke of God with all haste.”

Hearing this, he was turned to joy and glorified God and wondered at so excellent a desire in her. Consent was made on both parts; he shore off the hair of his head, and she was compassed with the veil. Such, with God’s help, was their manner of life and purity of heart that through them the Lord deigned to work many virtues while they still lived in the body.

⁵ What more? Let us return to the time at which the Lord deigned to show His might through His servant. While he was still in the lay order, journeying with his household and a large company, he came to a certain place among rustic men, the worst of men, who feared not God nor reverenced any man. There a contention arose over the horses’ fodder, so fierce that, had not the Lord’s goodness and the man of God’s merits come to aid, many murders would have been done there. He sought help where he had power to give it: he went to prayer as to a sword, and besought the divine mercy for a shield. And the Lord, who graciously hears His servants, succoured him, and at once the strife was calmed — as though they had been joined in the bond of friendship for years past; and they who had been at variance, God converted in wondrous wise to concord through His servant, a son of peace being present with the man of God. From there he began to grow more fervent in heart and to proclaim Him with the mouth of profession, saying: “Surely He is to be loved above all things, since wherever He is invoked, at once He is present to be heard, as the Lord Himself promised through the prophet: ‘When you shall seek me with your whole heart, I shall be found of you’” [Jer. 29:13–14].

⁶ After this the man of God forsook the delights of this world, desiring to dwell in a holy monastery under the religious habit. First he lived with a certain old man in the place called Montfaucon — not for a long time. He was a man most comely, the crown of his head well-adorned, his eyes beautiful, his face full of joy, his hands long — and he wished frequently to wash them in water. With all his faculties expended, he sought to besiege the furnace of poverty. But since the devil is envious to hurt, and malice fights against the form of goodness, the devil’s envy blazed up greatly against him and ceased not to trouble him, both by himself and through his favourers. But he, girded with the helmet of salvation and the shield of faith, fought bravely against all the enemy’s darts [Eph. 6:16].

⁷ (a. 629–639) King Dagobert, who was then in those times, because he had had the man of God in his service in his youth, wished to trouble him because he had shorn himself without his bidding, and ordered him to be brought to his palace. The man of God, trusting in Christ’s help who stood at hand as his comforter, went — though unwilling — to the royal hall. And when he came near to the king’s presence, there was a certain poor man who had sunk his cart before the king’s gate. Of the many going in and out none gave him aid, but almost all walked over him and trod him down. As he drew near, the saint of God saw the impiety wrought by the sons of unbelief [Eph. 2:2]; swiftly dismounting from the horse on which he sat, he stretched out his hand to the poor man, and together they raised the cart from the place. Many watching him — how he had soiled himself with the mud — mocked him and cast many reproaches at him. But he, caring nothing for the iniquitous vituperation, humble, followed the footsteps of the humble Master — since the Lord Himself said in the Gospel: “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household?” [Mt. 10:25]. And when he had made this to God’s glory, at once an angel of the Lord appeared who carefully cleansed his garment, and made brighter than it had been before, he afterwards came into the king’s palace and stood before him and his attendants like a lamb in the middle of wolves. And the Lord, shepherd of all saints, kept His sheep snatched from the jaws of the enemies safe in the middle of them; and all knew that this was a man of God, who for the desire of Christ had despised all worldly glory. And the king commanded that none should trouble him, but that it be lawful for him to contemplate God’s glory.

⁸ Returning from there, he began to build a cell in a certain place out of his own resources. There he afflicted himself with fastings and vigils — daily groans, daily tears; and if ever, resisting, he was overwhelmed by sleep, he gathered his dried bones upon the bare ground. For fear of hell and love of Christ he had condemned himself to such a prison. The devil, seeing him ever cut a straighter path, opened his exceeding cruelty and blazed up against him, making him many troubles both waking and in dreams. But the saint of God, knowing his deceitful snares and the counsels of sweetness he suggested, overcame his persuasions by the banner of the cross and by abstinence. And the devil, seeing himself conquered by the man of God, declined to a greater destruction: if in any way — as the human condition weighed him down with sleep — he could, he multiplied assaults in his very vision. He, starting from sleep, took the armour of God, saying: “O God, make speed to save me” [Ps. 69:2], and besought the Lord to give him strength to overcome the wicked foe. And if ever in the night-vision he had been beguiled through the titillation of the flesh, rising at once with groaning and tears he plunged himself in the river — and when it was winter, he chanted the accustomed psalmody in the middle of the ice until each psalm was finished, coming to the waters for pardon. O how great was the zeal of the blessed man, and the mighty battle he waged daily against the enemy! And the merciful Lord stretched out His right hand to him, because his mind lay at Jesus’ feet — His feet watered with tears and wiped with his hair [Lk. 7:38] — and he subdued his resisting enemy, his body, by weeks of fasting.

⁹ God, seeing His soldier fighting bravely against the adversary, sent His angel to help him. On a certain night he lay in his hut on a haircloth, as was his custom, and was transported in the spirit by the holy angel and led to the monastery called Bobbio in the region of the Lombards called Italy — and the angel showed him all its dwellings, how and what they were. When the angel had left him, the saint of God began to revolve within himself what this was. Remembering the commandment in the holy Gospel — Christ saying: “Unless a man leave all that he has, he cannot be my disciple” [Lk. 14:33] and “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” [Lk. 9:23] — fulfilling God’s precept, he arose and left all, taking with him three boys and an donkey, unknown to the others; he went out of his land and from his kindred and from his father’s house [Gen. 12:1], and walked, not knowing where his journey led; but the Lord through His angel showed him the way he should go. He came to the aforementioned place where it had been shown him. And when he entered and saw all the monastery’s dwellings, he knew most certainly that it was what the Lord had shown him when he was caught up in ecstasy — and he lived there some while. All knew that this man was an athlete of God, and his devotion and origin came to the knowledge of all; and the Lord deigned to reveal to him many mysteries there. But he, ever desiring secrecy — that his virtues might not be made manifest to men, but be pleasing to God, since he heeded what the Lord said to false servants: “You are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knows your hearts” [Lk. 16:15] — gathered the virtues of God into the treasury of his heart and wished to please Him who saw him daily from on high. He wished to dwell in a more remote place and preside over the strait and narrow way: he had purposed to go to Ireland [lit. “Scotia”], for he burned with the desire of God, because the charity of Christ was shed abroad in his heart through the Holy Spirit which was given him [Rom. 5:5].

¹⁰ But when he was on his way, he came to the monastery built in the parts beyond the Jura, called Romanus [Romainmôtier], and asked lodging there. The abbot received him with the greatest care. And when, according to their custom, they came to wash his feet in fulfilment of the Lord’s command [Jn. 13:14], the saint of God perceived that there was that strait life which he wished through desire of Christ to follow; and it was more certainly made known to him through the Spirit of God that the Lord had brought him there to dwell under the religious habit — and he bound himself to obedience in that place. For many days he lived there under the regular discipline.

¹¹ For he, ever ascending to the pinnacle of virtue through humility, shunning vainglory, pursuing gentleness, fearing lest, if he seemed to do anything good, the devil should creep in by the wind of pride — keeping himself even from the smallest faults, that is, from idle speech — habitually shunned loud laughter, knowing it is written: “A fool lifts up his voice in laughter” [Ecclus. 21:23]; but he was ever upright and cheerful, most ready in God’s commandments. And he had these virtues joined to him as his companions: he was humbler than the rest, quiet as I have said in speech, cheerful in countenance, kindly in affection, mature in character; he neither wished to detract nor gladly heard it; not a murmurer, but obedient — whatever was uttered from the father’s mouth he did with all speed as at a divine command [cf. Reg. Ben. 5]; trembling at God’s bidding, his meditation was ever in His law; wherever he was, ruminating he revolved God’s commandments and kept them meditating. Such was his zeal, for he had mortified his members which are upon the earth. Naked he bore the naked cross and, dead already to the world, lived to God. And the Lord, seeing him most diligent in performing His service, opened to him many mysteries there by His watchful eye — or rather, by him He stirred many sleeping in the sleep of sloth and sluggish at God’s work, and made them rise to the work of faith.

¹² Nor dare I pass over that greatest miracle which, the saint of God himself narrating, I came to know. On a certain night, as he persevered in most devout prayer in his cell, the angel of the Lord stood before him in so great a shining brightness that the dwelling-place gleamed terrible with immense light, and the hut was filled with an odour of sweetness. And a voice came to him, saying: “Servant of Christ most ready in the fear of God, peace be with you, for you are great before God, and great are your works which you do without ceasing; persevere to the end, for the Lord Jesus Christ has prepared for you a crown and the pleasantness of paradise opened, that you may be exalted with Him for ever.” And in the same place He foretold things to come, saying: “Your nephew Godo shall follow after you.” The holy man, hearing this, prostrated himself again in prayer with groaning, glowing more and more — not exalting himself because the Lord had spoken to him by His angel and magnified his works, but humbling himself and confessing himself the more a sinner, as not worthy that the Lord should visit him. O blessed is that virtue and the man himself who deserved to be praised by the mouth of the Most High! O blessed mortification, which make man partaker of the Son of God! O blessed humility, which is most base before men, exalted before God! Keeping this, blessed Wandregisel has part in the kingdom of God.

¹³ Let us come to the time at which the Lord now willed to show forth His servant among the nations, and brought forth from His treasuries the precious pearl [Mt. 13:46], that through him the salvation of many might grow and a double crown be multiplied to him. Coming to Rouen in the holy see in the days of the orthodox Audoin — when the bishop saw him, he knew that this man of God was a great worshipper, and wished to bless him for the burden of the subdiaconate. Him, unwitting and almost unwilling, he instituted in that grade; from there he was made a levite (deacon), and afterwards by the hands of lord Audomarus [of Thérouanne] was made to ascend to the priesthood. The saint of God, after receiving the blessing, fulfilled his office — for he was adorned for the exercise of that ministry.

¹⁴ But since he ever returned to that fount of humility, wishing not to be occupied in earthly affairs, he sought the place where the Lord would show him how to lead his life under the holy rule. And the Lord gave him such a place, where the good shepherd had care of a very great flock of Christ. He settled beside a most abundant spring called Fontanella, in the wilderness called Gemetica [the forest of Jumièges] — land of the fisc which he had received by royal gift. There he founded a monastery and furnished it with the precious stones of many holy souls; for he built basilicas upon it in honour of St Peter, of blessed Paul, and of St Lawrence — and another oratory not far from the monastery, about a mile off, in honour of St Amantius, bishop of Rodez, which he built for the love of that saint of God. For he was dear to bishop Dadon [Audoin] for his zeal of holiness, in whose diocese the monastery is. He was no despiser of the canons, but so humble that if he attempted to go on a journey he sought the bishop’s leave, and would not go without his bidding — for he knew it is written: “Whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” [Mt. 18:18].

¹⁵ Moreover he wished to be without portion of this world, that he might eat his bread by his own sweat — and so it was for many seasons. And the Lord, seeing that His elect multiplied the grace of the talent given him, made many run together to that monastery, following his gospel, leaving father and mother, house and lands and the rest. And the saint of God, perceiving how the Lord was gathering the multitude of saints there, could not be without lands — but accepting from those who, illumined, submitted themselves to God’s service, so that he might have wherewith to provide their necessities, that is, only food and clothing, as the apostle bids: “Having food and clothing, let us be therewith content” [1 Tim. 6:8]. For he was the truest shepherd according to the Lord’s precept, since he laid down his life for his sheep [Jn. 10:15]; by his sweetness he turned the bitterness of many into sweetness, by his humility many proud, confounded, returned to humility; by his teaching he gathered many into God’s kingdom. For he was a learned scribe, bringing forth out of his treasure things new and old [Mt. 13:52]. The doubting he comforted, the feeble he strengthened, the sick he aided, and for them he fought the mightiest battle against the devil. Many spoils he took from the mouth of the roaring lion [1 Pet. 5:8], and as a good shepherd brought them back to the Lord’s fold, or healed them wounded by the grace of the word. And he instructed his sons how they could withstand Satan’s wavy snares, and that they who had put their hand to God’s work should not look back [Lk. 9:62]. And he declared to them, saying: “To look back, sons, is nothing else than to repent of what you had begun to practise, and to bind yourself again to worldly desires. Most rarely must a man be ready in humility to ascend to higher things. We must not count the years we have lived in the monastery, but how we have lived in God’s commandments without murmuring. And if no pride puffs us up because we do not steal with thieves nor join with murderers or perjurers, let us recall within our conscience what our conduct is — whether we bear hatred toward anyone, whether we shrink with all dread from detraction; whether pride does not inflate us, ambition delight us, lust defile us, anger embitter us, vainglory forestall us, immoderate laughter wrinkle us, idle speech hinder us; whether we keep charity, peace, joy, benignity with all eagerness. This is needful to us: that at every hour the Lord may find us ready for His work — that the Lord may rejoice and crown us, and the devil fall and mourn; for he has the greatest grief when he sees anyone most ready to keep God’s commandments. Little sons, keep yourselves from every defilement of the world [1 Jn. 5:21]; today we live, what befalls us tomorrow we know not [Jas. 4:14]. Let it be revolved in our diligent memory how we were once sons of darkness, but now, having obtained God’s mercy, are made sons of light [Eph. 5:8]. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and walk by Christ’s precepts as by light [Rom. 13:12]. See that the devil does not bind you in his snare through envy, but bound in charity serve one another in the fear of God. And if your adversary see this, he will flee far from you; to him whom the enemy sees unanimous in battle he cannot draw near, because the charity of God cements them — those of one mind hold the foulest foe prostrate.” This was his zeal and labour in fighting against the devil: that his sons, whom he had nourished only with the milk of God’s word, he taught for the war against him, and showed them from where his poisoned darts could come. And over those sheep of the Lord in the aforementioned holy monastery he bore the care in all things until his life’s end without complaint, as a shepherd excelling all.

So great was his truest humility that, for his sons’ teaching, even in long and honourable and seemly old age he strove to persist in the labour of his hands.

¹⁶ O how great and precious a soldier of Christ — who, though by the act of contemplation he lifted his heart on high, yet held on earth by brotherly love, subject in manifold ways to servitude, was made all things to all men after the apostle’s example, that he might gain all [1 Cor. 9:22]! He who through the manifold grace the Lord gave him watered the land of the nations and sweetened the torrent of thorns and the dead sea [Joel 3:18]. Thus from the holy man a good report spread abroad through far spaces of the earth — and savage though they were, whoever had not seen him with bodily eyes had great confidence that through his intercession, such as it was, he would have the Lord’s mercy propitious. In this his preaching chiefly shone: that while he lived among so brutish and savage a people, in a little time they were so converted by his prayer that they who had been spoilers afterwards lavished their own goods. What shall I say more? Shall I say how, among so fierce and raging barbarous peoples lately Christian, in monkish fashion he would prostrate himself to the ground even if lightly rebuked, and beg pardon? For the saint of God among his sheep ploughed in the Lord’s field with the word of preaching, and said: “Not to us, O Lord, but to Your name give the glory” [Ps. 113:9]; and his prayer was made daily for them, that the Lord Jesus would root so new a plantation in charity and establish its foundation in stability. And not only for his sons was his prayer continual, but for all people, just and sinners alike — in whose flesh the king of Assyria boiled the fires of fornication in a hasty pot [Ezek. 24:3–5].

¹⁷ It is wondrous and stupendous to consider whether we should believe that the man of God had the spirit of prophecy in such wise — it was so often present — that when anyone did not disclose his guilt, the saint of God would say: “Brother, what ails you, that you walk with so grim an aspect and saddened with a gloomy heart? have you not some hiding-places of the heart? Hasten to confession; do not let your guilt lie quiet in the heart, for a little spark added begets a great fire. Arise, brother, stand upon your feet, and lie not prostrate lest you be with the devil — arise with Christ.” Moreover I myself speak without doubt that I heard him pronouncing things to come which my eyes afterwards saw most plainly. The brevity of this text does not let me to dwell longer; but as far as I am helped by the divine mercy, it befits me to touch on these things, lest, as I said above, writing at too great length I breed weariness. And this I believe it lawful to inquire — how great deeds of miracles the Lord deigned to work through this saint of God and our venerable father; nor can my poverty comprehend it, but to God alone it is known — though I have thought what appears to human eyes worth inquiring, since of the saint of God I have touched few things. For let us know most certainly that through him the Lord cleansed lepers, made the lame walk with free steps, raised up those buried in the darkness of the heart within and well-near dead — he who, snatched from this most wretched age, now fights in the heavenly seats with Christ and His holy angels; and Christ shall be his glory, and those who shall rejoice without end in the pleasantness of paradise shall have no end.

¹⁸ Let us come to the place at which the Lord willed to bring His renowned one from the labours of this world into heavenly rest. Worn out by long age, he most often sang: “Woe is me, that my pilgrimage is prolonged; I have lived with them that dwell in darkness; my soul has long been a pilgrim” [Ps. 119:5–6] — and prayed to the Lord, saying: “O good Jesus, deliver me, for I greatly desire to see You.” Hearing His servant’s prayer, He sent him a slight sickness whereby He might receive his holy soul from the body. For three days and three nights the man of God spoke not with men, but rapt in ecstasy contemplated God’s glory, and opened his eyes a little and looked into heaven with glad countenance. And the disciples who stood before him knew that his mind had been transported into God’s glory. But the brethren, seeing that the Lord now willed to receive him, were greatly saddened, saying: “What shall we do, that you leav us so soon, father? We would gladly hear your words — we all desire to be corrected by your wonted admonition!” And they prostrated themselves with groaning and tears in prayer, beseeching the Lord not to let him to depart the body before he spoke to them for their comfort. And the Lord, seeing the exceeding contrition which His sheep made for their shepherd — that he was passing away and spoke not to them — permitted the saint of God to foretell them many mysteries. Calling his disciples together, he revealed to them many secret and hidden mysteries, both concerning himself and concerning the rest. Then the monks asked him, as was their custom, what they should do after his departure. And he, opening his mouth, answered them: “Know for certain that if you remain in my words and keep what I foretold you — that you be grounded in unity and charity and humility, so that there be no dissension among you — your condition shall remain right for ever, and the Lord shall be with you all days, and your comforter and helper shall be present in all your needs.” Few words he spoke to them in brief, for that advocate was already at hand who was to receive him into the bosom of his rest.

¹⁹ But when the devil saw that through the merits of the saint of God the Lord had called him from this darkness to the blessed life, he was moved with the greatest envy — because he had ever fought most bravely against him, and not only for himself but had drawn many sheep from his mouth and piously led them to eternal life — and wished to breed terror of soul in him by his blackest horrors. But the merciful Lord never forsook His just one, but ever dwelling in him, struck the devil and put him to flight. And the aforementioned father’s disciples who stood before him heard him say: “In the Holy Spirit the Lord baptized me into the font of the washing of translation, and the foulest demon met me, and the Lord struck him on the forehead and put him to flight.” And the saint of God, beholding the multitude of the hosts of saints whom the Lord had sent to his passing standing before him, called to a certain saint whose life and manners he himself had known, saying with glad countenance: “Agatho! Agatho!” And by that calling of his the brethren were made certain that a multitude of saints was gathered there. And I myself learned, a certain brother in the monastery telling it, that when he was in his cell he heard choirs singing most excellently. That brother, starting up to the pavement and running, came hastily to the church, thinking within himself that the brethren were already chanting at the blessed man of God’s passing. Coming into the church he found nothing in it; returning in terror, he came to the place where the venerable father was and asked those standing by whether they had heard anything. The brethren answered that they had heard nothing. And the holy man himself asked those brethren who tended him, saying: “Can you chant with those who are singing here?” They said to him: “Lord, who they are we know not; you know.” And he with shining face rejoiced in the Lord and sang with them in his heart.

²⁰ At last, at his departing, all the multitude of the monks was gathered, and the most holy soul went forth from the body — and the hosts of angels who were singing at his passing received it, and the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he had served most devoutly in this life, opened to it the pleasantness of paradise. Then the multitude sang at his going-forth with great lamentation: they poured out tears for the sundering of the flesh, the angels exulted for the joining of the soul. Their spirit was sorrowful for the shepherd’s dying, the angels rejoiced that they had received so holy a man of God.

²¹ Let the old exult, let the young rejoice, let the youths be glad, let the monks be merry, for the blessed seats receive holy Wandregisel; and after the many labours which for God’s sake he sustained with willing soul in the present life, he shall receive the greatest eternal crown. Let us follow him, brethren, with common zeal, if we would rejoice with him for ever. Let us humble ourselves for God’s sake as he did, that we may deserve to exult with him. Let us mortify our members that the spirit may flourish; let us be concordant that the devil may flee, meek that the angels may rejoice. Let him see the seed of God which he sowed in our hearts multiplied, and let the father rejoice in the sons and the sons in the father — that he may be able to present us before the eyes of God at that terrible judgement-seat of the coming judgement, saying: “These are the sheep which You committed to me, Lord; none of them has perished; they kept Your commandments which I announced to them” [Jn. 18:9] — and may the eternal King deign to say to us: “Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom with my beloved, my renowned Wandregisel, prepared for you from the foundation of the world” [Mt. 25:34] — through the bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ, who protected His confessor in the present life and after death joined him in glory to the joys of the saints; who with the eternal Father lives and reigns God in perfect Trinity for ever and ever. Amen.

²² Whoever wishes to know the death of this blessed man: the Lord received him, his work perfected and consummated, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of August [22 July].

HERE ENDS THE LIFE OF ST WANDREGISEL, ABBOT OF FONTENELLE.